According to one study, a nuclear war between the US and Russia would cause around five billion deaths worldwide. In addition to the population that would simply disappear during this war, scientists estimate that the fallout from such a conflict would have a dire impact on global food production.
Rutgers University researchers estimate that the impact of a nuclear winter would be absolutely catastrophic. Countries like England, America, Germany, France and China will perish and everyone there will die in the second year.
Other top countries
Conversely, countries like Argentina and Australia are relatively prosperous, and even if livestock in those areas die and trade with other countries is lost, no deaths will occur in the conflict.
As we saw in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everyone understands that the immediate consequences of a nuclear war would be dire. Our work shows that ten times more people could die in other parts of the world due to the effects of climate and agriculture,” explains study director Professor Alan Roebuck.
Various scenes
In the study, published in the journal Nature Food, scientists considered six scenarios involving nuclear wars of varying degrees. Even the smallest of conflicts can starve more than a billion people to death due to crop failure, which dwarfs the number of people killed in war itself, which is between 50 and 100 million.
But a full-scale nuclear war could cause such a drop in agricultural yields that 75% of the world’s population could starve to death within two years. While some countries are doing well, they still have to deal with unmanageable refugee flows. “So it’s not necessary for a country like Australia,” concludes the scientist.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”